Kimberley Denis

Kimberley Denis - Biography

Kimberley Denis, M.Mus. Choral Conducting and Vocal Performance (University of Alberta), B.Mus. (Mount Allison University), B. Comm. (Mount Allison University) is known for her energy and enthusiasm both on stage and off, and is sought after as a soloist, choral clinician, vocal coach, and adjudicator for voice and choir. Upon completion of both her commerce and music undergraduate degrees at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, she returned to her home province of Alberta where she completed a double masters degree in choral conducting and vocal performance at the University of Alberta. She also holds an associate diploma in Education and a music diploma in contemporary vocal performance from Red Deer College.

Vocal credits include a nomination for 2010 and 2012 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award, recital appearances around the province, and a year-long tour with Up With People. In 2015, she starred in a production of Jason Robert Brown's song cycle Songs for a New World and in 2014, played Cathy in The Last Five Years. She has worked with Live Bait Theatre in New Brunswick, appearing in many of their musical dinner theatres, and has also played Bonnie in Anything Goes, Kate in Kiss Me, Kate!, and Frumah Sarah in Fiddler on the Roof. She recorded the Alphabet Action Songs for Themes and Variations Music Publishing, and was a soprano soloist for the University of Alberta’s recording of the Dvorak Te Deum. She is currently working on a solo recording featuring original arrangements of the music of Joni Mitchell and Jann Arden and arrangements of other works for voice and percussion. She is a singer with Pro Coro Canada, one of Canada's professional choirs. In addition to her stage work, she has a flourishing voice studio at MacEwan University Conservatory of Music in Edmonton, Alberta.

She has conducted a wide variety of ensembles and presently, she directs Shumayela with the Kokopelli Choir Association in Edmonton, a choir which she founded in 2006; the choir has performed at Festival 500, an international choral festival held in St. John’s, NF and was a featured ensemble in 2016 at the Podium, Canada's national choral conference. She is also the conductor for the Edmonton Metropolitan Chorus Women's Project Choir and the assistant conductor with Vacilando, the Kokopelli adult choir. She has previously worked with the Red Deer College Chamber Choir, the Nota Bene Youth Choir in Red Deer, the Red Deer Children’s Choir, the Mount Royal University Youth Choir, the Edmonton All-City Junior Children’s Choir and the Edmonton All-City High School Choir, Kikimasu (the Kokopelli Children's Choir). She is also the alto section lead for the Edmonton Metropolitan Chorus. She has been the choir director for the past ten years at MusiCamp Alberta held at Red Deer College, has been the youth choir director at the Naramata Summer Music Week, and in 2011-2012 season, she directed the Kamloops/Thompson School District Honour Choir as well as the Edmonton Public Schools High School Honour Choir for Night of Music. She is also an experienced director of church music, having begun work in this area in 2000 at Mountain View United Church in Moncton, New Brunswick. Since then, she has worked for a number of different denominations.

Music for theatre credits include music direction for Concordia University College's production ofJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, vocal coaching for Red Deer College’s production of Rent, creating and directing a live vocal music score for Red Deer College's production of Romeo and Juliet and creating and directing a live music score for the world premiere of Vern Thiessen's adaptation of Wuthering Heights. She was also the music director at Theatre Alberta's Artstrek summer program for Into the Woods and is a frequent clinician for community theatre groups.

In addition to her work as a singer and conductor, Kimberley arranges pieces for choirs and is published by Cypress Music and Augsburg Fortress and was recently commissioned for an arrangement of the school song for the The Grange, a private, English-speaking school in Santiago, Chile and a setting of the United Arab Emirates National Anthem for an international school in Dubai. She is also the Managing Director for the Alberta Band Association.